loves oil industry jobs it also raises still the question of how much the country needs protecting from behavior like this from these companies who keep telling us they need further access to more sensitive areas, and not to worry because they know what they are doing. tonight, coast guard officials there in alaska are describing the shell oil rig as upright and stable. the plan at this point is to land rescue workers onto the deck to determine the damage it sustained, and look into the oil that is now rocking on board. we'll keep you posted as they tell us more. and meanwhile, your tax dollars will keep helping the most profitable industry on earth, the oil and gas industry, to the tune of billions every year.

right now on "first look," the students of sandy hook elementary return to the classroom for the first time since a gunman killed 26 of their classmates and teachers. fury over speaker boehner delaying relief for hurricane sandy victims. hillary clinton out of the hospital. and these guys were just hoping to score cash the old fashioned way, by stealing it. good morning. it's sure to be an emotionally charged back to school morning for the student who survived that horrific shooting in newtown, connecticut. it will be their first time back to class since the massacre three weeks ago that claimed 26 lives. nbc's jay gray is live with us in monroe, connecticut, where the students are attending a different school. jay, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. that new school is about seven miles away from sandy hook elementary here in monroe. it was an empty middle school that crews have been working to

refurbish. just one of so many changes here since the tragedy. a fresh blanket of snow covers the spot where a mountain of stuffed animals and cards once stood, a sign that led to sandy hook elementary has been pulled from the hinges. but this morning there will be school again. >> i'm not exactly sure how we're going to react to it. it's going to be hard. >> reporter: most everything here has been difficult since the attack that killed 20 first graders and six staff members at sandy hook. today in a new building, in another town seven miles away, survivors will be together again. >> they want to see teachers and classes and get back into the routine. >> furniture has been moved in from the the old schools. book bags and jackets put where they rushed out. the sign outside has been changed. >> if we can do anything to bring some type of db i don't think you can say normalcy but a normal learning environment for these children and for the

teachers that teach, then we're happy to do it. >> reporter: still, most in the struggling community understand little will be normal. >> we've actually installed new security devices at this school. and we're going to remain our presence on location until further notice. >> reporter: counsellors will also be in place as students, teachers and families try to find a balance between what's been lost and how to try to move on. now today should mark a huge step in that process. look, it could get kind of crowded inside the new school. parents will be allowed to stay with their kids for as long as necessary. so they can help each other transition back to class. live in monroe, jay gray, back to you. >> it will be an emotional day. jay, thank you. in warrick, colorado, victims from this summer's movie theater shooting are disgusted by the plans to reopen. they're planning to hold a memorial service and show a movie in the theater where 12

people were killed and 58 injured when a gunman opened fire on july 20th. in a letter, eight of the victims' families say plans to go back to business as usual are appalling and returning to the theater would be like entering a slaughter house. >> none of us are interested in ever stepping foot in that theater, that killing field, ever again. and to assume that we would warm to that idea is really astonishing to me. >> the families say they're organizing a boycott of the event. city officials say a community survey showed support for reopening the theater. secretary of state hillary clinton is out of the hospital after several days of treatment for a blood clot in a vain near her brain. clinton left a new york hospital wednesday evening with bill and chelsea by her side. she was admitted sunday after a scan discovered the clot during follow care for a concussion she suffered after fainting. clinton was treated with blood thinners.

she'll need to be closely monitored in the coming days and weeks to make sure that clot is not growing. today the 113th congress will be sworn in to start the two-year term. the house will vote to decide if john boehner will continue as speaker and lawmakers will have plenty of unfinished work to do. tracie potts is live in washington. will this new congress be able to get up to speed quickly? >> reporter: well, they don't really have a choice. they have so much on their plate, as you mentioned, including the debt ceiling coming up very quickly and the deficit. the 113th congress takes its oath this afternoon, 56 new democrats, 38 new republicans, and a record number of women. the youngest, hawaii's tulsie gabrin and the first hindu ever elected. john boehner expected to be elected speaker but 17 conservatives could derail. that he announced the first order of business, a vote friday to provide billions to victims of superstorm sandy.

>> the bottom line is that between friday morning and january 15th, two votes will bring in $60 billion is absolutely necessary for new york, new jersey, and connecticut. >> reporter: also tops on the agenda, raising the debt ceiling. republicans will insist on cutting spending first. >> the president is addicted to spending. he wants to spend. he wants a new credit card after he's maxed out the last one. >> the president thinks he's not going to negotiate. he better think again. he's president of the united states. he's not emperor of the planet. >> reporter: the last time the congress fought over the debt ceiling, we saw the first credit downgrade. >> it may take another downgrade, a default, the serious economic consequences that flow from it to jolt us back to some kind of reality. >> reporter: a new congress with old issues still undecided. and on a short deadline, too. it looks like we could hit that

debt ceiling if a few weeks again. >> tracie potts, thank you very much. house speaker john boehner has come under fire for his handling of the fiscal cliff talks and for postponing the sandy aid talk last week. we asked if the country would be better off with someone else as speaker? >> the hard right with the money machine and with the way they control the messaging and even their wing of the media has such a grip on this party that i'm afraid it's going to take a while before the republicans themselves come to their senses. i don't think it's the person who's there. boehner, by all reports, is more moderate than just about anyone else in that leadership, more mod ran than kantor or mccarthy or paul ryan. but any one of them right now is sort of almost a slave to this group of hard right people. and when you talk to those -- that group, not only are they totally out of the mainstream,

they don't listen. >> the rachel maddow airs here on msnbc. john boehner is reportedly fighting to regain his party's respect by promising to end one-on-one negotiations with president obama. but he says he'll still talk to the president every now and then. the senate intelligence committee is investigating information in the film "zero dark 30" about the hunt for osama bin laden. lawmakers want details about contacts between the filmmakers and cia officials, especially involved in interrogation practices. michael moore announced his new year's resolution including he will stop saying "i support the troops" because he doesn't anymore. and that he apologized for that saying it's not the troops' fault that they were sent to war for what he calls "dubious reasons." a new record was set in december for gun sale background checks in the u.s. following the school shooting in connecticut.

the new background checks surpassed the previous record by 39%. president obama scored the most views for 2012 on red it. his ask me anything session in august racked up nearly 5.6 million views. a lot of people want to ask the president something. and the state of new hampshire turns pink today. one woman is sworn in as governor while other women become the state's two representatives in congress and two more take the oath as senators. new hampshire is the first state in the nation's history to sign in all female delegation to washington. and that's your morning dish of "scrambled politics." and now for a look at the national weather, we turn to nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. happy new year. >> happy new year. a little chilly. >> it's january. >> this is a tough time though. after christmas and the holidays are over, okay, spring break started. good morning, everyone. as far as wet weather goes, we shifted it down into louisiana, a little bit there in mississippi. mostly southern alabama and even

into georgia. to the southeast, it's a little gloomy and cloudy. beyond that, it's a very quiet weather map once again. the jet stream just doing a big loop here. going all the way up here and then dipping down. that's why all the cold air is on the rockies to the east. this cold blast going through the great lakes and northeast very cold. one of the coldest that we've seen this winter season. right now it's eight degrees in boston. really especially from boston to the green mountains, it is cold. one of the coldest mornings we've seen in a long time. t it's not warm in new york or d.c. either. you have one more cold day to day. then we warm you up. let me take you to the next week. this tracks the cold air. the blue shows where you it's cold right now. that's where the dip in the jet stream was. as we go through the upcoming weekend, we warm up in the midwest. by the middle of next week, all the cold air retreats back into canada. the only exception being northern maine. this is by far looking like this week is one of the colder weeks we're going to have this winter.

we survived this week, we'll have one or two more cold ones. but probably shouldn't get too much worse. temperatures today, chilly. kansas city, st. louis, all of the fwlakz, mgreat lakes, midwe heading in the right direction. >> all right. warmer days ahead. thanks so much, bill. a pair of u.s. drone strikes kill taliban expander today. stocks soar but moodies issues a warning. and thieves try to still atm machines all caught on tape. plus, iowa's field of dreams from the kevin costner classic has been sold. details coming up. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. she knows you like no one else.

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welcome back. here's stories making news this morning. in northern pakistan today, u.s. drone missile strike hit a house near the afghan border killing a taliban commander and eight others. speaking of drone attacks, a new york judge rejected a request to

ask for legal justification tore such strikes. the united nations says the death toll from syria's 21--month-old sill war is now more than 60,000. that's even higher than estimates made by rebel groups fighting the syrian army. interested in buying a space shuttle launch pad? that's selling or renting facilities at the kennedy space center which includes space in the vehicle assembly building which was used to put together saturn five rockets for the apollo program. and for the first time, astronomers studying a newborn star got a glimpse of a planet forming around it. giant gas is surrounding the star and using gravity to channel material across the gap to the interior helping that star to grow. the first day of trading for 2013 had stocks on a terror following the fiscal cliff deals on capitol hill. the dow opens today at 13,412 after surging 308 points yesterday. the s&p 500 shot up 36 and the

nasdaq leaped 92. overseas, nikkei was closed for a holiday. the hang seng rose 86. that fiscal cliff deal wasn't all that good news. if a viable plan to shrink the deficit isn't reached in the next few months, the government's credit rating could be at risk. al jazeera may be coming to a tv near you. former vice president al gore sold current tv the channel he co-founded to al jazeera. the plan is to use current's u.s. distribution to broadcast the english news channel. one interesting note, as soon as the deal was announced, time warner cable said he had would drop the channel from their 12 million subscribers. polaroid seems to be developing a new business plan. get it, developing. the company will be opening several retail shops called photo bars where people can come into the store and download and print pictures. they'll be photo tenders to help people out with the process. if you build it, they will buy it. the famous iowa baseball diamond

from the iconic baseball movie owe field of dreams" has been sold for $3.4 million. they plan to transform the landmark into 24 youth baseball fields. water levels dropped ten feet in the last six months along america's shipping super highway. if parts of the mississippi river don't rise soon, shipping could come to a halt along with 8,000 jobs. that's just for the month of january alone. the mighty miss handles and enormous amount of cargo. a typical tug boat carries 15 barge boats. it would take 216 railcars or 1,050 tractor trailers to move the same amount of goods. one of the nfl's most dominant and fiercest players calling it quits. a dolphin that picks college football winners and cowboys and redskins produce ratings gold. plus, not one but two different sets of thieves try to steal atm machines.

we'll have details as we go across america. you're watching "first look on "on msnbc.

here's your first look at other news going on across america. in texas, surveilance video captured a brazen atm smash and grab. you can see a pickup truck plowing into the building before the thieves made off with the machine packed with $4,000 in cash. the damage to the store is between $10,000 and $20,000. no arrests have been made. a similar scene in tennessee

when a van backed through the back door of a market. cameras captured two men jumping out and loading the atm machine into the van. authorities later recovered the stolen vehicle minus the atm machine. police in georgia released video of a school board official intentionally running down a 17-year-old girl in a walmart parking lot to get a spot. authorities say the teen was trying to save the space for a friend when she got hit. the driver was arrested and charged with reckless conduct. in washington state, we're getting an aerial view of tons of japanese tsunami debris that washed up last month. among it, an entire dock which japanese writing on it. there's no word on when it will be removed. another dock washed up in oregon earlier this year. now to sports. we kick off with a big upset in college football in the sugar bowl. number 21 louisville returned an interception on the first play and scored four more times as they knocked off florida 33-23.

tonight it's the fiesta bowl in glendale, arizona with oregon facing number five, kansas state. and a dolphin named flipper who correctly predicted florida state's win in the orange bowl tuesday is predicting a winner of the national championship game on monday. by a nose and with its nose, flipper said notre dame will beat alabama. in college basketball, number seven syracuse roll over rutgers. coach jim boeheim of the orange passed bob knight for second place on the all time win list with 903 trailing only duke's mike krzyzewski who has 940 victories. the leader of baltimore's defense ray lewis says he'll retire after the season. the ravens played the colts in the first round of the playoffs on sunday. sunday night's redskins-cowboys game was the highest rated regular season prime time nfl broadcast in the washington, d.c. market since 1987. nationally, the highest ever on nbc. and redskins coach mike shanahan

was interrupted during a news conference by quarterback robert griffin iii who asked his coach a question. >> what did you do for new years? >> tried to put a good game plan together. i wasn't sure how healthy you were so it was hard without you calling me. you got me good. >> and by the way, the redskins won, they're headed to the playoffs. for another look at the weather, here is bill karins with the weather channel forecast. hello again. >> an attempt at a little press conference humor. an attempt. i told you it was cold, i didn't realize it was this cold. look at the numbers in northern new york. it's the coldest it's been in a long, long time. we're minus 15. that is the temperature as you get in your car this morning in glen falls, new york, saratoga area, burlington, vermont, minus nine. i mean this is really heart of the winter.

maybe as cold as you get all winter. boston and hartford in the single digits. we're waiting for the sun to come up. it will feel better in most areas. temperatures will recover into the low 20s. so by winter standards, that's just about as cold as it gets. 31 only in new york city. not even getting above freezing in central park. so this is about it. this will be the coldest day for new england as we get back to normal days. >> good to hear warmer days are ahead. thank you. just ahead, hunger games actress jennifer lawrence with the naked truth about acting. plus, they're called ozzie and harriet. they have millions of views and we'll explain why. i got your campbell's chunky soup. mom? who's mom? i'm the giants mascot. the giants don't have a mascot! ohhh! eat up! new jammin jerk chicken soup has tasty pieces of chicken with rice and beans. hmmm. for giant hunger! thanks mom! see ya! whoaa...oops! mom?

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take a look at this web cam video from ft. myers, florida. an eagle nest camera racked up more than a million viewers as it followed two eagles. they visited the same spot for the past five years and last month harriet laid two eggs and one finally hatched. harriet was seen feeding her baby but still to be seen is the arrival of baby number two. "hunger games" jennifer lawrence doesn't think too much of her career. she says acting is stupid. while doctors and firemen save people's lives, i'm making movies. it's stupid. speaking of stupid, kim kardashian's sex tape spiked 80% since her pregnancy announcement. >> why is it even for sale? >> she's making money off it.

>> ray jay is also getting a cut of every sale. >> disturbing. >> pop and country singer patty page died on new year's day at the age of 85. she sold more than 100 million am bu albums during her career. and finally, britney spears is getting the ax at the x factor. simon cowl is unhappy with spears who shows up late to "the x factor," wanders around aimlessly and acts like she's in her own world. she is still selling records and filling stadiums. >> "the x factor" isn't having the effect he was hoping. he thought it would knock off "the voice" and "american idol." >> that probably means he needs paula. >> this is "first look" on msnbc. stay tuned. "way too early" starts right now.